Too many, far too many, leftists cheered the 7th October – a phenomenon I explore in my talk, ‘Decolonization is not a metaphor’. As the anniversary of the horror of the 7th October approaches (a horror which should not be negated by all the horror thereafter in Gaza), I am reminded of this article from my comrade Clive Bradley written back in 2002 for Workers Liberty. Clive’s assessment of why socialists, in their solidarity with the Palestinian people, should not be politically supporting Hamas is as relevant now as it was almost twenty five years ago.

In Clive’s article, he states that a movement for freedom cannot be based on hopelessness. There really was no decent reason for leftists to cheer the 7th October: its legacy has been devastating for the prospect of peace between Palestinian and Israeli people and for the Palestinian right to national self-determination.

“It’s a lose-lose situation, this whole war.”

“Nothing is obvious anymore, even the state of Israel.”